Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is returning to front-line politics to seek the leadership of his center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.
In a prime-time television interview Sunday, Sarkozy explained his political comeback saying that France is “one of the rare countries where there is such a lack of hope.”
He said he did not want to see his county “condemned” to the perspective of “total isolation” due to the rise of France’s far-right National Front party.
It is widely expected that Sarkozy will run for president in 2017 if he wins next month’s elections in his conservative UMP party.
Sarkozy lost the presidential elections to incumbent Francois Hollande in 2012, due in part to the rise of French unemployment and his unpopular measure to raise retirement age to 62. He pledged then to leave politics, but he promised to serve his county in a different way.
Hollande’s popularity has dropped to 13 percent, as unemployment continues to rise, according to polls this month. Hollande promised Thursday to end his term in 2017, to modernize France, to boost the economic growth, and protect its social model.
